Summary
An AP-NORC poll reveals low public confidence in President Trump’s ability to appoint qualified Cabinet members, manage spending, and oversee the military in his second term.
About 3 in 10 Americans express high confidence in these areas, while half are “not at all confident.”
Republicans show more confidence (6 in 10), but it’s less unanimous than Democrats’ skepticism (three-quarters express doubt).
Independents remain divided, with most expressing low or moderate confidence in Trump’s leadership abilities across key responsibilities.
“They’re all the same!” my FIL equating Harris to the convicted felon and conman who flew with Epstein.
“I didn’t vote” said my socialist relative who ignored the myriad policies Harris was objectively better than Trump on because of a right-wing wedge-driving message about Palestinians (haven’t heard a peep on Gaza since election, curiously).
Poorly educated minds led astray by disinformation.
I would hesitate to call many of them poorly educated. While there are plenty of those people in there. Your socialist friend was likely decently educated. But still manipulated and taken advantage of. It’s can happen to any of us despite how much we would protest and deny it.
One of the biggest problems left or right. Is people putting ideals over reals. It was rampant here for instance. All the people screaming about Biden and Gaza but quiet on everything else. Whose own ideological Purity was more important than everything else. They were fine that more children would starve die and be murdered so long as they could maintain their ideological purity.
Ideology short circuits intellect. And makes you easy to manipulate. Providing simple but wrong Solutions to complex problems of life. Much like cults. We all want to have Solutions or at least appear knowledgeable. Too many people are afraid to say that they don’t know. And defer to people who actually might.
I hear what you’re saying but I’ll just note a few things: He’s not highly educated — at least not formally. And his socialist origins to me speak more of this “fight the man” anarcho-nihilist mindset more so than anything. As you said, people are content with Pyrrhic victories if they can pat themselves on the back and say, “I didn’t vote for Hitler,” — but they leave out the part where they didn’t vote against him either. (I know he was appointed, but just for the sake of argument). There was no rational argument to not vote for Harris if you truly cared about Gazan lives. At the very worst, Harris was equally bad on Gaza (she wasn’t); but on everything from women’s rights to protecting Ukrainians against their own genocide they face… The choice couldn’t be more clear.
At the end of the day we all have core values and those serve as a filter to how we perceive events. In the wake of dissonance and contradiction between your actions versus your core values, that to me would suggest someone was led astray like being trapped in Plato’s Cave. If perception is reality, then their values can only be applied within the framework of that cave.
Which means they’ve been duped by disinformation. If you have time and formal critical-thinking skills, this can inoculate you to this to a considerable degree.
While we shouldn’t denigrate formal education like conservatives and fascists. We also shouldn’t discount those educated outside it’s walls. Being against the man is a fine start. Everyone should be. The trap is being so ideologically against the man. One can’t engage with the man when circumstances make it necessary.
Unfortunately many will never have the time to develop critical thinking skills. Or want to. Many are content to be good sheep. And there’s nothing we can do to change that. What we might be able to do is remove the wolves shepherding them.
One of the first steps to doing that is to abolish the notion that it’s wrong or impolite to talk politics in polite company. If we cannot talk about it amongst friends, family, and acquaintances. Who can we? Are they then to be left to go home, indoctrinated by the reanimated corpse of the 4th estate. Completely unopposed? Because that’s how we got here.
We need to learn to talk to each other again. About politics and all manner of things forbidden by the ownership class. Radio, TV, Papers and social media especially. Are complete tools for propaganda at large. And they have easy marks while we continue to hold our tongues. Whether or not you agree with Mangioni, it’s clear to see their terror when we actually talk about it. Not just repeating their narrative.
We would be better served by engaging in areas where we agree. Engaging less in the wedge issue culture culture wars being manufactured. (Not abandoning the minorities being targeted) Pushing back collectively against the propaganda. They aren’t prisoners being held against their will in some cave. They’re the ones keeping themselves there. But there’s nothing from stopping Society at large from storming in their self-imposed isolation with torches. Casting their own Shadows on the wall. The dim Shadows they chase are only allowed to persist. Because we are told not to disturb them.